When Jed Hoyer made the difficult decision to part ways with franchise icon David Ross and hire Craig Counsell as manager, it was all about winning and setting the team up in the best way possible for success.

Counsell has an impressive resume as a manager:

—A lifetime .531 winning percentage that increases to a .555 winning percentage over his last 7 seasons as Brewers skipper.

—He has averaged nearly 91 wins over his last 6 full seasons (excluding 2020’s shortened campaign).

—The Brewers made the playoffs 5 times over his last 6 seasons at the helm.

—Counsell led the Brewers to a Top 2 finish in the NL Central in 6 of the last 7 years.

—Counsell earned NL Manager of the Year votes 6 times since 2017.

It’s made even more impressive when considering Milwaukee sported a payroll in the lower half of the league each season (and were often in the lower third of MLB).

However, Counsell wasn’t always able to translate that regular season success into playoff wins. He has a career 7-12 record in the postseason with only 1 playoff win since 2018 (which was also the only year his team won a playoff series).

Despite that, Hoyer had no reservations about choosing Counsell to steward the Cubs into what they hope is a period of regular and sustained postseason success.

“It’s really hard because I look at it — do I think they had teams that were capable of going really far in the playoffs? I do,” Hoyer said at the MLB GM Meetings last week. “I think their ’21 team was a really, really good team that lost in the first round.

“To me, the greatest sign of a really good manager is his ability to navigate the marathon. I think that sprint is really hard. I know that’s how managers make the Hall of Fame is by winning a couple World Series and there’s nothing wrong with that but what’s happened over a dozen or so games I don’t think overshadows all those different seasons. … I don’t think that has anything to do with his skills as a manger.”

For example: Dusty Baker was widely renowned as a great manager well before he won his first World Series as a skipper with the 2022 Astros.

One thing that stands out about Counsell is his ability to learn as he goes and grow from experience. And he has taken the lessons to heart from his multiple shots at the postseason to date.

“Yeah, it’s different [managing in the playoffs] for sure,” Counsell said. “The 162 games is a marathon. And in our game, I think decisions you make are rewarded over the marathon. And players are frankly rewarded over the marathon.

“In short playoff series, we have luck in our game. And we have fortune in our game. You don’t control everything — you control less in really short stints in this game. So it forces aggressiveness on managers, I think.

“The mindset you have to take into playoffs is one of aggressiveness. And you still have to be willing to trust your players and trust your great players. But with an aggressive mindset.”

Counsell is self-aware and has lots of thoughts on how to be successful in this game — “There’s a selflessness to winning.”

And in his role, he feels he needs to check three boxes to be a winning manager — though he was quick to admit that he does not completely know the answer.

“I have to be prepared. That’s first,” Counsell said. “I have to have the courage to be myself. Because when you put yourself out here, in these situations, you mess up, you have flaws, you’re not going to be perfect. That’s OK.

“And then I have to connect with people. Because that brings out the best in them. I think that’s specifically players — to put them in a position to succeed and put them in the best place to succeed. Mentally and as teammates.

“So those are the three things that I ask of myself and try to do. And then you just have some ‘let the chips fall where they may’ that you have to be OK with.”

Counsell will bring that perspective to the Cubs in hopes of leading the team back to the promised land.